Triptych 005 : Lest We Forget

Left Panel

200 x 90 cm

Centre Panel

200 x 90 cm

“Lest We Forget”

2017 mixed media on canvas

200 x 270 cm

by Angel Correa

When my mother was barely a teenager, she unexpectedly lost her mother. Only five years later, she lost her father with a similar lack of expectation. Rather young to go to her mother’s funeral, her grief was unresolved for many years, and she often stood outside the locked gates of the cemetery doors on nightfall, to express how much she was missing her.

It’s believed in my culture that some souls spend time in Purgatory, and when they are in this state, such souls protect people who invoke their support. It’s also believed that in adulthood, we outgrow the ability to perceive these souls. To this day, it remains my mother’s conviction that a retinue of such souls would appear within the cemetery to comfort her in her grief, and to act as guardians.

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Whether my mother’s experiences were simply signs of unresolved grief will never be known. What I do know is that legions of lone parents, orphans, brothers and sisters are left in similar circumstances, and the effect is intergenerational. We must never forget the impact of those who leave us unexpectedly.